Door-opening mechanism



May 29, 1928.

1,671,222 H. s. BRADY I DOOR OPENING MECHANISM Filed Dec. 8, 1,926

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gwuentoz Hrileri S+evens aliko'zwu Patented May 29, 1928.

7 UNITED @STAT'E'S HELEN STEVENS BRADY. or TACOMA, WASHINGTON.

DOOR-OPENING- MECHANISM.

Application filed December 8, 1926. Serial No. 153,289.

This-invention relates toldevices for operating doors and has special reference to mechanism whereby a door may be opened.

My invention relates more particularly to doors of refrigerators, ovens, or other movable structures. Q P j The objects of my invention are, first, to provide a means for opening the doorby the foot, thereby permitting "both -hands to be used in bearing the food orfother material to be placed in the receptacle; second, to provide means for holding the door open without maintaining the foot pressure on the opening mechanism; and third, to .pro-' vide means which will constantly tend to keep the door closed tight, but which can be counteracted by the door-opening mechanism.

A. further objectis to provide a mechanism which is wholly hid from view, except the operating pedal, and is wholly mounted within the refrigerator and is movable therewith and operable in all po sitions to which the refrigerator may b moved.

Further objects are to provide Such amechanism which may be installed in refrigerators, or other places, with'but very little expense, and with the least possible alteration thereto, which is cheap to make, and which is very elfective in use.

I attain these and other objects by the devices, mechanisms, and arrangements illus trated in the accompanyingdrawings, in which- Fig. 1 is an elevation of the operating hinge near the lower corner of the door; Fig. 2 is a section thereof, showing the upper portion of the operating apparatus; Fig. 3 is a section ofone lower corner of the refrigerator base, showing the operating pedal in elevation; Fig. 4 is a similar view of the other lower corner of the refrigerator base, showing the operating gears in elevation; Fig. 5 is a section taken at right an gles to Fig. 4;; Fig. 6 is a section taken at right angles to Fig. 3; Fig. 7 is a front elevation of a portion of the refrigerator base showing the hole throughwhich the pedal passes; and Fig. 8 is a front elevation of a refrigerator equipped with my mechanism,

' showing however the pedal passing under;

the refrigerator instead of through the front thereof as in Figs. 3, 6 and 7.

Similar numerals of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

It is a very common experience that the housewife will approach the refrigerator with dishes in both hands and is obliged to lay one of the dishes down in order to free her hand to open the door. This necessitates providing a table'or shelf near the refrigerator, which is often inconvenient,

and also results in unnecessary waste of time and effort in laying the dish down, unlatching the door, opening the door, and picking up the dish again. A similar condition also is often met with in the operation of ovens and other articles. It is to overcome these objections that I have invented the hereinafter described means for operating the door, and though this mechanism is illustrated and described as being applied to a refrig erator it is to be understood that it may be applied with equal ease and benefit in many other places. It is to be understood that this mechanism is mounted in and forms a part of the refrigerator, or other movable structure, to which it is applied and that. it has no connection with the building, in

which it is used, and that therefore it is unnecessary tocut the floor of the building in order to hide the operating parts from view.

It will be seen that, in the refrigerator illustrated, the cold chamber is mounted, above the chamber containing the refrigerating mechanism. The cold chamber is provided with a door 1, and the lower cham ber with afront-closure plate 2, having ventilating louvres 3 therein.

The door 1 is hung on a plurality of hinges, the upper hinges 4 being of usual form and construction, and the lower hinge 5 being of special construction, as herein described. A knob (3 may be provided on the door l,whereby the door may be opened if it is not desired to use the pedal mechanism.

The hinge 5 comprises a strap portion 7, secured to the door 1, and a plate portion 8, secured to the refrigerator wall. The pintle 9 for the hinge 5 passes through an upperbarrel 10, on the plate 8; a central barrel 11, on the strap 7 and a lower barrel 12, on the plate 8. This'lower barrel 12 is extended downward and terminates at its lower end in a. hollow cylindrical casing 13. This extended portion 14 of the lower barrel 12 is of greater internal diameter than the pintle 9. The cylindrical casing 13 is positioned slightly below the floor of the with said lugs 29 as it is moved in the openreirigemtor (F g. 2). The pint1e'9 is se ing 28, as indicated in Fig.7. 65 

